Modern day consumers often own multiple electronic devices, such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, personal digital assistants, cable set-top boxes, speakers, televisions, or GPS systems. Given the complex and disparate nature of these devices, obtaining full technical support across devices may be cumbersome. Support services are typically dispersed among different providers. Consumers may need to establish separate accounts with various providers or travel to different locations to obtain services for their devices.
Because the service providers reach the consumers through individual avenues and do not communicate with one another, they collectively provide fragmented and inefficient services. Each service provider performs its own examination upon devices, potentially resulting in repetitive discovery and diagnoses across providers. Further, solutions that each service provider learns in the course of their support remain with the individual providers, thereby limiting the providers' amount of knowledge and rate of learning.
Additionally, customers often have limited understanding of services for their devices. Customers typically seek services when a device malfunctions, they become dissatisfied with the device's level of performance, or they become aware of services through third-party avenues (e.g., advertisements, word of mouth). As continued support for devices is largely customer-driven, devices may not be optimally maintained.